


Truth or Dare

by officerstilinskihale



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Cute Shit Happens, Fluff, M/M, Stiles is a YouTube star, THERE IS NO SEX AND i'M V V UPSET ABOUT IT, The Hale girls are fab, and nothing else, pining!derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 11:17:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/officerstilinskihale/pseuds/officerstilinskihale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So, I thought I’d do this, and just to keep to the same theme…” he trailed off, before nodding once, as if to steel himself to what he was about to do. “Derek Hale, I dare you to go out with me.”</p>
<p>Derek stared blankly at the screen, watching as Stiles ducked his head, blushing.</p>
<p>“That sounded a lot cooler in my head to be perfectly honest,” he admitted, and Derek’s mouth twitched.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth or Dare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eeames](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeames/gifts).



> dedicated to [eeames](http://eeames.tumblr.com/) based on one of [her prompts](http://eeames.tumblr.com/post/54537133847/sterek-truth-or-dare) from her fic wish list. merry late christmas, dummy.
> 
> oh look, a fic that isn't under 5k, i'm kind of proud! go juily.
> 
> beta'd by myself, so that should explain all the mistakes. and stuff. enjoy!

Derek’s sisters were up to something. Something that was probably really, horrifically awful. And he wasn’t just exaggerating, because Derek actually knew this from _experience_. Sisters were awful.

Cora had been acting suspicious (read: _nice_ ) all day, and really, Derek should’ve known. And this was _before_ Laura made him hot chocolate and asked him what he wanted for dinner.

He eyed the two of them warily. “What.”

It wasn’t even a question anymore, and he scoffed at their weak attempt to look insulted.

“Can’t we treat you nicely without you breathing down our necks about planning something behind your back?” Laura said, her hand over her chest.

“No,” Derek said flatly. “What is it.”

“Learn to ask a question, Derek,” Cora shook her head at him disappointedly before turning on her heel and flouncing away.

“And then there was two,” Laura intoned in what she probably thought was a creepy voice, waggling her eyebrows at him suggestively.

Derek didn’t even pretend to take the bait. “No.”

“Come on, Derek, stop being a grumpy butt.”

“No.”

“But I really thi—”

“Get out, Laur, please,” he sighed, turning onto his side and shutting his eyes as he shoved his head under his pillow. “M’napping.”

“Napping my ass,” she muttered murderously and Derek had to hold back a snort of laughter. She glared at his curled form for a moment before growling in frustration. “This isn’t over yet, Derek.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, his voice muffled from where his face was pressed into his pillow. “Whatever you say, Laur.”

Two weeks later, he had only just walked into the living room, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand when Cora waved at him from where she was stretched across the couch, her laptop conveniently sitting on the armrest. “Hey Derek, watch this,” she said, and he walked around without a thought to look at the screen, where a pretty redhead was flicking through a magazine, looking bored as hell. “There’s this guy who attempts to do her hair following other YouTube tutorials.”

Derek sighed. “I swear to god, Cora, if this is one of your ‘gay men have more skills than I do’ rants, I’ll loc—”

“First of all, I don’t do that,” she huffed, ignoring Derek’s skeptically raised eyebrow and plowed on without hesitation. “And anyway, I don’t know if Stiles is even gay. And even if he was, I wouldn’t be jealous of his ‘skills’ because he hasn’t got any.”

“Stiles,” Derek said, his tone unamused and Cora just waved her hand at the screen, where the literal embodiment of Derek’s wet dream had just strolled into the frame. He had brown hair, short enough that it didn’t look like an absolute mess and yet, long enough for… _well_. Derek would get to that later. His creamy pale skin was splattered with moles, and his whiskey-colored eyes almost sparkled with his enthusiasm, and Derek made a helpless noise at the back of his throat when the camera panned to his face, and Stiles tugged at his pink mouth with sinful fingers.

This was about the time Derek realized what exactly his sisters had been planning.

“Oh no,” he moaned and Cora giggled.

“Stiles,” Cora whispered in his ear, her tone gleeful, before shoving Derek down onto the couch, where he buckled down easily. He hadn’t even realized she’d moved. “They zoom real close to his fingers when he’s doing her hair.”

“No,” he whined, though he knew it was already impossible. “I _knew_ you guys were up to something! And you better be bringing me more coffee,” he yelled out to Cora when she left, taking his mug with her.

Grabbing the pair of earphones dangling off the side of the couch, Derek pulled them on just as Stiles threw his head back and laughed, the pure joy clear in his voice, and yet all Derek could think of was tugging the collar of that yellow shirt down and _biting_.

“So, as I was saying before Lydia so rudely interrupted me,” Stiles continued, beaming at the camera. “Because I nearly destroyed her hair the last time we did this, it was her choice today, and she chose the mermaid braid, which, _rude_. I could totally do this in my sleep, Lyds!”

“Mmhm,” Lydia hummed, flicking to the next page on her magazine. “Sure you can, sweetheart.”

Stiles sighed, though there was no mistaking the fond smile on his face as he fiddled with the camera for a second, adjusting it to change the angles, before grinning directly into the lenses, lips pulled back in a smirk and Derek really needed to get a grip. To be fair, Stiles was everything he was attracted to, with the added bonus of being a sarcastic little shit with a wicked sense of humor, snarking back at Lydia when she criticized him.

It didn’t take long, Stiles squinting at Lydia’s hair and toggling with his computer to replay a part of the video so he could try and get it right, tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration. He made faces a lot, the most common of them would be what Derek dubbed as his “ _oh shit_ ” expression, when Derek assumed Stiles had done something wrong, because he’d hands would still and deftly undo the part he’d just done.

“Aha!” Stiles finally said, a triumphant grin on his face as he darted out of the frame and then back, gripping a mirror, so he could show Lydia what he’d done. She pursed her lips for a moment, turning her head to and fro until she shrugged.

“It’s not bad,” she admitted and Stiles fist-pumped the air with a laugh.

“Did you guys hear that?” he asked the camera excitedly. “Not bad is practically a glowing recommendation from Lydia, you guys know this. Stiles did good,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at the camera, and Derek had never met someone who actually talked about themselves in the third person before. “So, that’s it for this week! As always, much love and all the thanks to Her Royal Highness, Lydia Martin, for volunteering her beautiful hair, and of course to all of you watching this. I’ll see you all next week!”

Of course, after that first video, Derek made it his personal mission to watch every single video Stiles had, starting from the first “Hair _Stiles_ ” (Derek had rolled his eyes so hard he had to pause for a second to make sure he could still see) video. There was a whole bunch of videos, most of them of him trying to do Lydia’s hair, and others where Stiles had recorded two of his many friends, Allison and Scott, performing at fairs and beaches. After a solid two hours of watching every single video Stiles put up, Derek clicked back to Stiles’ homepage and blinked in surprise when he saw that Stiles had just put a new video up a couple of minutes ago.

“Hey everyone!” Stiles waved at the camera, wearing a simple, faded hoodie and what Derek assumed was sweatpants. “So, I know it’s a tad early for me to be putting up a video, but I was over at dad’s last night, and we had this huge barbeque and Scott and Allison came up with this idea where you guys comment dares, and I have to do them or I’d reveal five things about myself. I don’t know why anyone would want to know more about me,” he laughed and Derek stared, because _he_ wanted to know more about Stiles. “But it is what it is. So, comment on this video and I might start doing this every other week instead of having Lydia come in every week. She’ll like that, because she has been mentioning that she’s incredibly busy lately. Did I tell you she was a math genius?” and just like that Stiles was off on a tangent, talking about Lydia going to work in NASA one day and blowing every other person out of the water or something.

Stiles only seemed to catch himself when he began talking about his high school crush on her and he cut himself off with a little laugh. “But, that’s a story for another time. Damn, this was supposed to be a short video, I’m so sorry!” he laughed again, his eyes bright and happy. “So, yeah I’ll see you guy on Tuesday, enjoy the weekend!” he waved at the camera before the video cut off and already Derek had his hands poised over the keyboard to comment when he hesitated.

Dare, dare, dare.

“Laura?” he called out five minutes later, and looked at his sister pleadingly when she popped her head to peer into the living room and at him. “Come up with a dare I can’t do.”

“Lick your elbow,” she replied instantly and he groaned.

“Laur, that’s _lame_ ,” he complained, scrubbing a hand through his hair and she rolled her eyes.

Laura huffed. “With that sort of gratitude that’s all the help you’re getting from me,” she sniffed haughtily. “Don’t forget it’s your night for dishes,” she reminded and he made an affirmative noise before she disappeared back into the kitchen.

Derek sat there for a few more minutes thinking about it. There was no way Stiles could do it, that’s for sure, but was it too much of a cop out? He shrugged. Didn’t matter.

He clicked onto the comment box, gratified to see that Cora was already signed in, and typed in “bet you can’t lick your elbow” and clicked the button before he could chicken out of it.

Scrolling through the other comments, Derek felt a little bit better when he saw the other dares were also stupid things like stay in a headstand for a minute, or eat an earthworm, although there was one adventurous guy who dared Stiles to “jerk off on a livestream” and Derek flushed just thinking about it.

There were heaps of other suggestions, Stiles probably wouldn’t even notice his.

 

+++

“Wow, Stiles, you got almost five hundred comments on this!” Scott’s jaw was wide open and Stiles scoffed, brushing past where he was hunched over his computer on the dinner table. “I’m serious!”

“Shut up, Scott, no one cares about that video, I was going to take it down later anyway. Get that off the table, dinner’s ready.”

“Just— _look_!” Scott grabbed Stiles by the wrist when he walked past again and Stiles yelped, tripping over his feet and nearly faceplanting onto the table.

“Scott, what th…woah,” Stiles blinked in surprise. Scott was right.

“ _Duh_.”

Oops, guess he said that out loud.

“How am I supposed to do all of them?”

“Pick the best ones, and then do those,” Scott shrugged, leaning back in his chair. “Remember, Danny said the rule of thumb was if your video is pushing past five minutes, it’s probably too long.”

“Okay, okay,” Stiles nodded, pulling a chair up to start scrolling through the comments.

“Hey, what about dinner?” Scott asked, laughing when Stiles gave him the dirtiest look known to man. “I’m kidding, I’ll get it.”

“You’re an asshole,” Stiles muttered, shifting closer to the laptop and shook his head at the sound of Scott’s manic laughter.

 

+++

“Can I borrow your laptop?” Derek asked Cora Tuesday night, and ignored the way his cheeks flushed when she smirked at him.

“Whatever for?” she asked sweetly and he huffed.

“Can I borrow it or not?”

She laughed, shaking her head and sliding the computer over to him. “Jeez, someone’s touchy.”

“ _Thank you_ ,” he exaggerated, picking it up and migrating to his room, kicking the door shut behind him even as he was attempting to get to YouTube with one hand. He sank down onto his bed and pulled up Stiles’ channel, where a new video was waiting, and he clicked on the link without hesitation.

It opened with Stiles beaming at the camera in a plaid shirt over a graphic tee with what looked like the Android logo munching on an Apple, and Derek cracked a smile, because he actually got that joke.

“Hey guys! Over the last couple of days since I put up the video I got a lot more dares than I expected, so Scott, my friend with the crooked jaw and plays the guitar really well? Yeah, him. He said that I have to do the first couple ones, but with the upcoming videos we’ll pick the best ones. Well, not the _best_ , but the most creative,” Stiles nodded to himself and clapped his hands together. “Okay, first one up is tw1nk13, hey is that meant to be twinkie? That’s awesome! Anyway, he wants me to do a handstand, because apparently I don’t look like I’m coordinated enough for that. Well, twinkie, joke’s on you because I _can_ do a handstand. Watch this.”

Stiles pushed his chair back and stood up to stretch for a minute, shaking his hands out. He took a deep breath and then dropped gracefully to his hands, his legs not even slightly unstable as he held the position for a good couple of seconds before his shirt fell and he squawked, dropping back to his feet and pulling his shirt back down, his face burning. Derek blew out a sigh of relief, not even realizing he was holding his breath, because Stiles had a toned stomach and a surprisingly thick happy trail, and Derek couldn’t deal with that right now.

“Well,” Stiles coughed, laughing a little awkwardly. “I’ll count that as a win, thanks. Next up, is someone called coratheexplorer,” he smiled, and Derek breath caught in his throat. “That’s a brilliant pun, if a little childish. Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Stiles added quickly, eyeing the camera seriously before turning back to his computer. “And she says… _oh_ you sneaky little bugger.”

Stiles shook his head and Derek felt a rush of pride, ignoring the voice in his head telling him technically it had been Laura’s idea.

Onscreen, Stiles was still talking. “Okay, so _Cora_ wanted to bet that I couldn’t lick my elbow, and I’m not going to try and embarrass myself further by pretending I can when I know I can’t. So Cora, wherever you are, these five facts are for you,” Stiles grinned and Derek pulled the laptop closer. “One, my favorite food would have to remain a tie between curly fries and chicken nuggets; two, I met Scott when we were both six, because I tripped over him in the playground and he wouldn’t stop apologizing for a week afterwards. Three, my dad’s a sheriff, though that fact was directed at the gentleman who sent a grand total of seventeen messages telling me to jerk off on a livestream.” Despite himself, Derek laughed, and Stiles shook his head despairingly. “People these days,” he lamented before biting his lip thoughtfully. “Fourth, I wanna be a detective when I grow up, major in criminology or something; and your last fact is that this will be the only time I will be thwarted by a cheat.”

He winked at the camera, and Derek vowed to come up with the most creative and difficult dares ever for the week, just so he could watch Stiles flush because he’d been outsmarted again.

Derek barely heard Stiles jokingly mutter about how HannahXOX had offended him by assuming he didn’t know how to do a cartwheel, and the other ones didn’t even register in his head, he was too caught up in thinking of a new dare.

“Okay, so that was fun,” Stiles clapped his hands, catching Derek’s attention. “I look forward to all the creative stuff you guys can come up with, you’ve got like two weeks or so, because next week I’m going to try doing those pin-up curls that were really popular in the 50s. It’s going to go splendidly,” Stiles nodded enthusiastically, scrunching his nose up as he thought about it. “I hope so anyway,” he amended, gaze dropping to the floor bashfully, and Derek didn’t realize he could be more attracted to this guy than he already was. “Anyway, I’ll see you guys next Tuesday! Have a great rest of the week!” Stiles waved, and then the screen went blank.

 

+++

Derek commented regularly, and while he didn’t get picked all of the time, there was no doubt in anyone’s head that his dares have been picked more often than any other viewer. Stiles had even stopped referring to him as coratheexplorer, choosing instead to refer to Derek by name (and by name, Derek meant Stiles calls him Cora). In fact, on the rare occasion Scott appeared on video, there was a large chance he would refer to “Cora” to offer hints as to what kind of dares Stiles wouldn’t be able to do.

Derek liked Scott.

Scott first dropped Cora’s name in a video where he’d been performing at some sort of waterpark, and after the applause had died, Scott had hopped off the stage, offered his hand to help Allison down the stairs before blowing a kiss to the camera. Stiles had laughed and told him that they did well, as usual, and Scott had replied with, “Cora, you should dare Stiles to sing or something” followed by a yelp when Stiles punched him from behind the camera.

“I swear to god, Cora,” was the last thing from the video, and Derek could clearly see the way Stiles’ eyebrows would furrow in the middle and his lips would thin into an unimpressed line, even when Stiles wasn’t even in the frame.

Of course, he’d dared Stiles to sing, but apparently, Stiles had come prepared with a guitar, singing a quiet rendition of The A-Team by Ed Sheeran. He was flushed bright red by the end of it, quickly launching onto the next dare, but Derek had stared open-mouthed at the computer screen until Laura mentioned competing with Cora to throw grapes into it.

The day after that, Derek was working on a paper when he heard Cora call for him from her room.

“I’m working,” he called back, not even turning around.

Cora’s laugh was clear as a bell, even through the walls and she replied, “You’re really going to want to see this.”

“I bet you I won’t,” Derek snapped back, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Seriously, couldn’t she tell when he was bu—

“I’ll just tell your loverboy not to send any more messages,” she singsonged and Derek jerked so hard he slammed his hand on the underside of his table.

“What?”

“Someone called moviekidd826 just sent me a message on YouTube, but I guess if you’re too busy…” she trailed off and Derek was up and out of his seat in a flash.

“He did what now?” he asked, trying to appear as if he had just casually walked into her room.

“God knows why, but he wants to talk to you,” she shrugged, pushing her laptop at him. “I hope you’ve put your work up on Google docs because I’m stealing your laptop now.”

Derek made a noncommittal noise, and plonked down on the chair Cora had been sitting in, ignoring the way she cooed at him and ruffled his hair as she walked past.

Clicking through to Cora’s inbox, he eyed the message notification with something like dread. He could do this.

**moviekidd826:** you think you’re so funny

Derek sighed in relief. That was easy to respond to.

**coratheexplorer:** well, i am funny. so i don’t know what you’re talking about.

He pulled up his paper and only managed to write an extra word when Cora’s laptop pinged, and when he went to check what it was, he felt his mouth curve up into a smile when Stiles replied.

**moviekidd826:** modest as well  
 **coratheexplorer:** you know it. you’re not half bad at the guitar though. or the singing.

Derek felt himself flush even as he sent the message. That wasn’t being too forward, was it? He was just being nice. Complimentary. There was no way Stiles would interpret that as—

_Ping_!

**moviekidd826:** haha thanks :) so do you do anything other than stalk my videos?  
 **coratheexplorer:** woah someone’s being incredibly self-assured right now  
 **moviekidd826:** okay, you got me there, but really, what am i supposed to expect? you comment on every video  
 **coratheexplorer:** you amuse me  
 **moviekidd826:** i’m going to take that as a compliment?  
 **coratheexplorer:** as you should. i’m actually working on my dissertation on Thucydides  
 **moviekidd826:** dude, awesome! wasn’t he the one who documented the Peloponnesian War or something? oh god, this would be so embarrassing if i got it wrong

The words stared back at Derek for a long moment. This was crazy. There was no way Derek had found his soulmate on YouTube, of all places.

He was still staring blankly at the screen when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Der?”

“Hmm?” he turned to the worried stare of Laura, who was holding a bowl of soup.

“You missed lunch, so I brought you this. How’s the paper going?”

Derek squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. Right. His paper. “It’s…going?” he hazarded and she shook her head.

She put the bowl next to him and dropped a kiss to the top of his head before putting a hand on her hip and smirking at him. “Tell Stiles I say hi.”

“Ugh, shut _up_ Laur!”

She shut the door behind her as she walked out, cackling.

 

+++

Stiles walked through the door of his apartment, tapping away on his phone with a smile on his face before he bumped into Scott, who was standing just inside the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Heyyyy Scott,” Stiles said, trying to peer around his body only to find the rest of his friends sitting in the living room, with a banner over their heads saying—

“Intervention,” Scott announced grandly, curling his arms around Stiles’ shoulder and leading him into the room, gesturing towards their friends. “This,” he waved his hand at Stiles’ phone and his whole being in general. “Has got to stop.”

Stiles spluttered. “But, what?”

“Your constant messaging Cora. It’s been like, three weeks,” Lydia said, sighing when Stiles muttered ‘ _two and a half_ ’ under his breath. “This is going to end up being a disaster.”

“Cora and I are just friends!” he protested, and she said nothing, choosing instead to raise an eyebrow at him. “I’m serious. She’s a senior—”

“You’re a senior,” Scott pointed out with a hopeful smile and Stiles glared at him.

“At _grad school_ ,” he continued and Scott deflated.

“We’re not saying anything,” Allison said placatingly, getting up to pull Scott off Stiles and she dimpled at him earnestly. “We’re just worried about you.”

“Look, even though she’s smart, older, funny and incredibly witty,” Stiles barreled on despite the pitying looks they shot him. “I don’t know where she’s from, she could live in England for all I know, and I have no clue what she looks like.”

“Well you could always ask?” Danny offered from his spot on the couch. “We’re not stopping you from texting her, you just have a tendency to uh, get attached,” he said, and the whole room cringed, remembering Stiles’ highschool obsession with Lydia and Stiles’ catastrophic sophomore and junior year relationship with he-who-must-not-be-named.

“Fine, I’ll ask her where she’s from,” Stiles rolled his eyes. “We done now?”

“No, I literally only came because Scott promised there’d be food,” Jackson said, and Stiles cracked a smile, despite everything.

“Never change, Jackson,” he sighed, dropping his phone in his pocket before he headed to the kitchen, shaking his head with a fond smile on his face, trying not to think of the message sitting innocuously in his outbox.

 

+++

“Oh my god,” Derek said, his heart dropping down from his chest to his feet. Probably further down to hell, if he was being completely honest. “Oh my _god_.”

“What is it?” Laura burst in his room, Cora hot on her heels. “Is everything okay?”

“Stiles is from Beacon Hills,” he said, gesturing to the laptop. “He’s from Beacon Hills,” he repeated, a horrified look on his face.

“Good! Now you can actually meet and hopefully he’s just crazy enough to like you,” Cora said happily, running a hand across her laptop lovingly. “And I can get my laptop back.”

Laura’s eyes narrowed at Derek’s pale face, and she bent over to reread the last couple of messages. “Hold on,” she scrolled upwards, mumbling underneath her breath before she sucked in a sharp breath. “ _Derek_!” she slapped him upside the head, jabbing furiously at the screen. “Please don’t tell me this is what it is.”

“What?” Cora asked, eyeing Derek suspiciously when he seemed to shrink into himself. “What’s he done now?”

“Just, read it,” Laura said, her hand over her eyes. “Oh my god, Derek.”

Cora’s eyebrows crinkled in confusion and she pulled the laptop closer to herself.

**moviekidd826:** so, where are you from?  
 **coratheexplorer:** beacon hills, it's a small town up in norcal but i’m over at berkeley  
 **moviekidd826:** !!!!  
 **moviekidd826:** bh?! that’s my hometown!  
 **coratheexplorer:**  your dad is sheriff stilinski?  
 **moviekidd826:** aw man you know him? were you a troublemaker as a kid, pretending to be an innocent girl but he found you out? don’t worry he does that with everyone

“He thinks you’re a girl?” Cora shrieked and Derek moaned, his head buried in his hands.

“It gets worse,” he mumbled and Laura just shook her head.

**coratheexplorer:** nah, i just knew who he was. he did good work  
 **moviekidd826:** wow, i can’t tell if you’re a suck up or just a genuinely nice person  
 **coratheexplorer:** i get that a lot  
 **moviekidd826:** i’m sure. so uh, cora, i know this is going to seem really weird and feel free to think i’m a complete creep and stop talking to me after but if you’re going home for the holidays did you maybe want to grab a coffee or something?

“ _He thinks you’re me_!” Cora slapped a hand to her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. “Derek!”

“I didn’t think I’d have to tell him!” he complained, his voice muffled by his arms. “Now he wants to meet me and I’m not a girl!”

“Why were you flirting with him then?”

“I _wasn’t_!” he protested, pulling his head up to stare at them before he deflated at their expressions. “ Not much anyway,” he corrected, and then hastily adding, “I didn’t expect I was ever going to meet him!”

“What’re you going to do?” Laura asked, cocking her head. “I mean, he really does seem to be perfect for you.”

Derek sat for a few minutes, staring hopelessly into space before his face brightened and his gaze slid to Cora.

“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “No.”

“Hear me out,” he begged, and she shook her head again, vigorously this time.

“No.”

“ _Please_ Cora.”

She glared at him, before looking over at Laura, who shrugged. “Fine.”

“Could you maybe meet him, and then tell me what happens? If you think I’d like him, I promise I’ll tell him it was me all along.”

Cora pretended to think about it for a long moment, before sighing and running a hand through her hair.

“You owe me. Big time.”

“I love you,” he said earnestly. “ _So much_ ,” he added when she waved him away dismissively, walking out of his room shaking her head like she didn’t quite know when Derek’s life had spun so far out of control. Derek turned back to the laptop and his fingers flew over the keyboard and he stared at his reply long after he had pressed the send button.

**coratheexplorer:** i don’t think you’re a creep. i was trying to figure out a way to ask you that without sounding like a stalker. i’d love to grab coffee with you :)

“You’re a mess,” Laura said fondly, and Derek gave her a dumb smile. She patted his cheek. “I really hope things work out,” she admitted seriously, and Derek sobered up, his gaze dropping back down to the computer screen.

“Me too,” he murmured quietly.

 

+++

“Remeber, be cool, don’t say anything I wouldn’t and make sur—”

“Oh my god, Derek, I know how to meet a boy,” Cora cut him off with an eye roll. “Just, calm down or something.”

Derek squeezed his eyes shut as they rounded the corner, the coffeeshop in question looming in the distance. “Also, if you could subtly find out if he would, maybe,” he coughed. “Like guys?”

“Was already planning on it, big bro,” she said, and they paused outside the entrance. She turned to him and gave him her best smile. “How do I look?”

“Good,” Derek said honestly. “You look good.”

Cora beamed at him before she pushed the door open. “Coffee on me today.”

Derek followed her in with a shake of his head, pulling up his wrist to check the time when he bumped into a warm body. He hadn’t even opened his mouth to say something when a familiar voice started spewing apologies,

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even see you there, which is admittedly kind of stupid, since you’re built like woah, but yeah. Wow, you really are huge.”

Glancing up, Derek felt his throat dry because now he was blinking straight at Stiles’ warm brown eyes, which were staring straight back at him with the same dumbstruck expression. “I, uh,” he cleared his throat when neither of them moved for a long moment. “It’s okay, it’s just as much my fault as it was yours.”

“Derek, what on ear—Stiles?” Cora tilted her head, holding two steaming cups of coffee, and that seemed to break them out of their thoughts.

“Cora?” Stiles turned his back to Derek, who squeezed his eyes shut and muttered a quick prayer to the heavens. “Uh, hi.”

“Hey,” she grinned back at him, handing Derek his coffee and then tucking her hair behind her ear. “Black, milk and two sugars?” she asked, and he nodded. “Stiles, this is my older brother Derek. Der, you know Stiles.”

“Wow, so the crazy attractiveness runs in the family, huh?” Stiles said, before his eyes widened in horror, and Derek’s ears flushed pink. “Oh god, it’s a good thing you probably already know how much of my life I spend regretting everything I say.”

“Yeah, we do, actually,” Cora laughed, and Stiles blushed, his gaze flicking to Derek and darting away when they found Derek staring back. They stood around awkwardly for a moment, Derek staring helplessly between Cora and Stiles and then realizing he should probably leave them alone.

“I’m going to get some work done,” he coughed, gesturing to his messenger bag and nodding over at one of the corner tables. “You guys have fun.”

“Later, Derek,” Stiles said, forcibly dragging his eyes from Derek’s figure to look back at Cora, who was studying them with a thoughtful expression. “So, your brother, huh,” he laughed a little awkwardly and she raised an eyebrow at him. “He seems nice.”

Cora burst out laughing. “Yeah that’s one way to put it,” she shook her head fondly. “He’s a bit of a doof around people, but he’s a good guy, really.”

“Okay, I’ll not spend all this time talking about your brother,” he tilted his head to the counter, a smile on his face. “I’m going to grab my order and you grab a table?”

“Sure,” she shrugged and turned away, her eyes flicking to Derek, who was peering at them over his laptop. Rolling her eyes, she pulled out her phone and shot him a text saying ‘ _subtle_ ’, and giggled when Derek glanced down at his phone and scowled. Pocketing her phone, she headed over to a booth before sitting with her back to Derek, just so she could see how many times Stiles glanced over at him.

He hadn’t even gotten his order yet and the count was up to five, not that Derek noticed, what with him scowling constantly at Cora instead of realizing that Stiles was probably way more into him than her at this point.

‘ _They are peasants,_ ’ she texted Laura, who replied with an ‘ _I’m sure they’re both beneath our intellectual capacity_ ’, which made her smile just as Stiles was settling opposite her with his cup.

“Sorry, the line took forever,” he said, sounding genuinely apologetic, before his eyes flicked up behind her shoulder and back.

Six.

“How’s your paper going?” he continued on and Cora’s face wrinkled in confusion for a moment before she got it.

“Uh, it’s good. I’m nearly done,” she shrugged. “I like to bug my siblings about it all the time. And I claim that I’m working really hard so they do things for me,” she shook her head ruefully, thinking about Derek’s increasingly ridiculous excuses to get them to bring him food and coffee.

“I would do the same thing,” Stiles admitted with a laugh.

Seven.

“What does your brother do?”

She glanced over at Derek, who was frowning at his computer screen, a flush visible high on his cheeks. “He, uh, works?” she said quizzically, unsure what she was supposed to tell him. “I’m not entirely sure what he does.”

“How old is he?” Stiles asked absently, still looking over at Derek, before he seemed to realize what he was saying and flushed hotly, his eyes dropping back to Cora. “I mean, no! That’s not what I meant. Sorry, I’m just—”

“I get it,” Cora cut him off gently, hiding a smile when Stiles slumped down in his seat, an embarrassed look on his face. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s,” Eight. “He’s…”

Nine.

“Oh my god, I’m not coratheexplorer, Derek is!” Cora burst out, and the whole coffeeshop went silent save for a large crash from behind her.

Stiles stared openmouthed at her. “ _What_?”

“Derek is—”

“Leaving,” the man in question hissed, his face burning red and his things hanging precariously from his arms.

“Wait, Derek!”

Derek was gone before she could say anything more and she slid down her chair with a sigh, a hand on her face.

Stiles stared at her for a long moment before he coughed awkwardly, giving her a tentative smile when she looked at him. “How about we start from the beginning?”

Cora sighed. Seriously, Derek made everything ten times more difficult than anything ever should be.

 

+++

Two days later, Derek opened his email to find a message from sstilinski@gmail.com without a subject or even a proper message, just a link to a private video on YouTube.

His heart pounding, he clicked onto it to find Stiles sitting in his computer chair in a faded Beacon Hills lacrosse team sweatshirt, staring at the camera before he took a deep breath and expelled it with a whoosh.

“Okay, so Cora told me everything and she said you’d be upset that it didn’t happen on your own terms, so I’m just going to apologize for that,” Stiles rubbed his head awkwardly for a moment, before he dropped his hand back down into his lap. “But, just so you know, I had a feeling something wasn’t right anyway, when I met your sister. She was great, I mean, she is,” he laughed. “She _is_ great, but she was different. She just wasn’t who I knew from the messages. And I don’t know if she told you this,” Derek doubted it, because he’d been avoiding Cora and Laura the past few days, not stopping long enough to say more than a few words to either of them. “But I was asking about you the whole time, I think she knew I was interested. Or, I am. Because I am. Interested, that is,” Stiles winced, and Derek couldn’t help the snort that escaped him.

Stiles sighed, picking at a loose thread on his shirt before looking straight into the camera.

“So, I thought I’d do this, and just to keep to the same theme…” he trailed off, before nodding once, as if to steel himself to what he was about to do. “Derek Hale, I dare you to go out with me.”

Derek stared blankly at the screen, watching as Stiles ducked his head, blushing.

“That sounded a lot cooler in my head to be perfectly honest,” he admitted, and Derek’s mouth twitched. “Anyway, if you still wanted to, call me. Cora has my number, and she gave me yours. I’m here for another week or so before my semester starts, so…” Stiles smiled ruefully at the camera. “And I promise you, don’t be embarrassed about using your little sister’s account to talk to me. I’ve done worse, really. I’ll tell you about it sometime, okay?” he ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Okay, fuck closure, I’m just stopping the video as it is. Bye!”

Derek eyed the blank screen for a moment before he got up and unlocked his door. “Cora?” he called out, and when she popped her head out of her room with a smile on her face and a slip of paper in her hand, he felt something settle in his stomach.

**Epilogue:**

“Hey, guys! I have a special treat for everyone today,” Stiles waggled his eyebrows at the camera with a grin, and Derek rolled his eyes. “Lydia was super busy so she couldn’t make it for today’s episode of HairStiles, so Derek here volunteered his luscious mane for a good cause, c’mon Derek, let’s see those locks.”

“You’re an idiot,” Derek murmured, stepping into the frame, and Stiles beamed at him.

“Nonsense,” he replied without missing a beat. “I’m going to put his hair into cornrows, and won’t that just be the hottest thing anyone’s ever seen.”

“I hate you,” Derek muttered, sinking down into the chair and shutting his eyes.

Stiles squeezed Derek’s shoulders from behind him before leaning over to press a kiss onto Derek’s temple. “No you don’t.”

Derek really didn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> yo i have a tumblr right [here](http://officerstilinskihale.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Not taking prompts at the moment because I am swamped but you can message me anytime and I have a to-write list in case you desperately wanted something written down :) thank you again guys i love you!


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